Making more of an effort to go out and shoot at night due to increased inspiration. This one is dedicated to my husband, Ed, who encouraged me to take this shot even though I was being stubborn about the lack of Milky Way in the photo. ;)
Shot at the beach where the famous kiss scene in From Here To Eternity took place.
Lava Kiss Print Available Here!
Wow. I’ve officially gone somewhat viral.
It all started with Alan Taylor of The Atlantic’s In Focus choosing my Lava Kiss photo out of the National Geographic Traveler photography contest to be the first image in the post about the competition. From there, PetaPixel picked it up, then Gizmodo, and from there it went on to the Huffington Post, Glamour, and even My Modern Metropolitan’s Facebook Page as the cover image.
The response to the photo has been overwhelmingly positive, though there have been the obligatory few dissenters. Most often that I’ve seen is that people believe it’s a Photoshopped image, despite having posted a Lightroom screenshot to Google+ back when the image was first posted and people accused me of compositing. So, here are some more images from that night, both taken with a point-and-shoot and my 5D Mark II, to give everyone a better idea of what was going on. Click each photo to see it bigger!
I’d like to note that we did not go alone, but with an authorized guide from Kalapana Cultural Tours. These guys watch the flows every day, and make the tour very safe, so I highly recommend their service! It is very dangerous to go out looking for lava if you are unfamiliar with the environment, plus it’s illegal as much of the flows cover what is still technically private property. Check out their blog here for nearly daily updates of their lava hikes, with photos!
We started out where the road ended, cut off by an older flow years before. It was about an 8-mile round-trip hike over some amazing pāhoehoe lava landscape, and the late-afternoon light was glorious.
Portrait of the Kiev 60 by my husband!
My Kiev 60, bought off of eBay and used to shoot 120 film, has a winding problem. When it’s winding correctly, it has the power to take some pretty awesome images with a depth and feeling that I can’t reproduce with my current digital lineup. I’ll be able to afford a Hasselblad (film or digital) someday, but for now, my quirky Soviet baby is good enough!
However, its winding problem has resulted in some interesting “beautiful mistakes”. I’m the kind of photographer that enjoys having little control over my shooting situation, but a lot of control over the final image produced through my processing, so the unpredictable nature of using my Kiev 60 has resulted in some unique images that could not have been planned that way. Here’s an overlap from my Kakaako PowWow project that made an interesting composition:
I just got my most recent roll of 120 back from the lab, and while I was pleased to find that I’d managed to get nearly all 12 exposures onto the roll accurately without overlap, I somehow ended up shooting more than 12 shots until there was no more film left, resulting in my favorite image from the roll:
Couldn’t have meant to do it if I tried, so it’s my favorite beautiful mistake thus far! However, film is expensive at $20+ for development and scanning, so I’m hoping to perform surgery on my Kiev soon now that I have some test paper to experiment with. I’ll try to document that process when I get around to it.
Check out one of my favorite photographers, Oleg Oprisco, who also shoots with a Kiev!
I knew this day was coming, so it comes as no surprise…and even though it might not be the end, I’ve already resigned myself to it being so.
My 5D Mark II has finally kicked the bucket.
AKA had an ‘Error 30′, which a brief Google Search told me meant I’d have to send it in for repair, as it’s a shutter mechanism issue.
I’m okay with it, as it has had a long, hard life over the last three and a half years or so, and it has been in decline ever since I was caught in a rainstorm without protection in May. Since getting drenched, the on/off/aperture lock switch has taken a lot of effort to get the aperture unlocked, so I’ve basically left it in the “on” position since then. There’s also its infamous hot pixel issue with the sensor that even a trip to Canon couldn’t resolve, so it’s probably time for it to be replaced.
However, even though it’s just a piece of (thankfully insured) equipment, my 5D Mark II, has been on some great adventures with me throughout some significant times in my life. In honor of its passing (and I may be speaking too soon as we still need to call the insurance agent tomorrow), I’d like to offer a retrospective of its life with me.
I’d like to thank everyone for their awesome support of the Americana 2012 photo shoot! Now that I’ve finished with that project for now, it’s back to catching up on my editing and working on making the new apartment livable before I go back to shooting for almost a week straight next week. I don’t have much else to say for today, but wanted to share an image that was a true collaboration with our whole shooting team. Our amazing model and good friend Taneka came along as Tyson’s wardrobe assistant for our second day of shooting for the Americana 2012 shoot, and thus hadn’t been planning on modeling at all, but my husband Ed has had an idea for an Americana portrait for a while, and she agreed to pose for it post-shoot. Our fantastic makeup artist Zairrah stayed later than she had to and did some awesome makeup, Ed styled Neka with some of Tyson’s accessories and then shot the photos with lighting assistance from Scotty, and then I edited the image!
Hello everyone!
Welcome to my revamped website/blog! Unfortunately, despite all good intentions, it is not running at 100% quite yet and has a few bugs to be worked out — which I suppose is what happens when I choose to move my website the same weekend we move into our new apartment. However, the website has come together enough for me to deliver its debut photoshoot, as promised – unlike our apartment, which will likely remain in a state of boxed chaos for the time being. Special thanks goes out to my BFF Kaeo Kepani for designing and coding this layout for me!
I’ll write again soon (after I recover from this editing all-nighter) about what I intend to do with this blog, but for now, I leave you with my latest project, Americana 2012. Inspired by a combination of last year’s shoot for an American Eagle competition and actually having a few free days during the last couple of weeks, this project began with me telling my stylist friend Tyson Joines, “Let’s do something Americana before the 4th. Maybe with fireworks.” This project, despite its humble beginnings, was not immune from scheduling conflicts, traffic, and other obstacles, but I’m proud of the talented group of people I had the privilege of working with, and am quite happy with the fruits of our labor.
I hope you all enjoy these images, and I wish you all a Happy Fourth of July!
Click each image to see it full-size!
Special thanks goes out to Homecoming Boutique and Philanthrophy by Madison and Company, two amazing local boutiques located on Oahu!
